Bennett on CNN: We’ll Do Whatever We Need to Defend Ourselves

Education Minister and Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett on Tuesday continued giving interviews to international media in which he warned of the dangers of the nuclear deal with Iran.

After already having tackled a hostile BBC interviewer, Bennett was interviewed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo and warned that the deal “paves the way for Iran to become a terror nuclear superpower”.

Bennett also made clear that Israel would do whatever it takes to defend itself from a nuclear Iran.

“The world is going to be funneling $500 billion to the world’s biggest exporter of terror,” he warned. “It’s going to legitimize Iran’s quest for nuclear power and, in effect, all the promises that we’ve heard over the past year that the embargo will not be lifted – well, the embargo is being lifted on missiles, albeit five years down.”

“When the West wants to inspect something, it will be a very cumbersome process that will give Iran enough time to hide its activities,” said Bennett. “This is a terrible deal, and we hope that still the small chance of it being finalized and approved will not happen.”

The Jewish Home chairman then stressed, “In any case, Israel is prepared for any eventuality.”

Iran, Bennett said, “was on the floor and we basically lifted them up and said, ‘Take the money and down the road you can also have a bomb.’”

Asked what Israel will do if Iran’s parliament approves the deal and it goes into effect, Bennett replied unequivocally, “Israel always said that we will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and we will still do that. We stand behind these words. We’re preparing for everything we need to do in order to defend ourselves.”